45% of Small Businesses Use Pay Per Click Advertising, Survey Says

Did you know even if you don’t have a website your small business can benefit from search engine optimization? A new survey conducted by Clutch reveals only 45 percent of small businesses run Pay-Per-Click campaigns. And when they do, 86 percent of them pair it with SEO.

According to the survey, small businesses engage their target customers depending on where they are in the conversion funnel. Using their metrics during this phase, small businesses are able to gauge how their audiences are responding with their website and content. But the benefits of SEO go beyond websites.

Even if you don’t have a website, your small business can optimize its Google My Business profiles and local directory listings. When properly optimized, the contact information of your business, hours of operation and location can be displayed when users search for content related to your company. In the press release for the survey, Kevin Tash, CEO of Tack Media, said “Every business is a viable candidate for SEO unless they absolutely don’t require business from the public and they are a referral-based, discrete, or relationship-based business.”

The Clutch Fourth Annual Small Business Survey was carried out with the participation of 351 small business owners and managers. Forty-five percent of the businesses were small companies with more than 10 employees, and 57 percent reported annual revenue of less than $1 million. The participants were asked how they invest in and benefit from SEO and PPC.

This is how they responded.

2018 Small Business SEO Statistics

So far in 2018, 55 percent of small businesses in the survey have invested in SEO, which is a 3 percent increase over the previous year. When they are figuring out the success of their SEO efforts, 21 percent measure the quantity and quality of links back to their site, 19 percent site traffic, 19 percent leads and conversions, and 18 percent keyword rankings.

The SEO services they invest in include social media marketing at 56 percent, search optimization at 46 percent and on-site optimization at 37 percent. They also create content to earn links along with reputation management and guest blogging on other websites.

Investment in PPC was expected to be as high as 65 percent in 2017, but Clutch reported there was only a five percent growth from 40 to 45 percent so far in 2018. This led the company to conclude PPC investment by small businesses is modest.

In the survey, 65 percent said they only spend 30 percent or less of their marketing budget on paid campaigns. And when they do run a PPC campaign, 37 percent said they do so as needed, 36 percent responded they run it regularly, and 27 percent said they use it seasonally such as on holidays.